Systems and methods for electronic marketing

ABSTRACT

An exemplary system includes a publisher subsystem configured to communicate with an access device and an advertiser device over a data communication network. The publisher subsystem includes a publish module, a session module, and an allocation module. The publish module is configured to publish content over the data communication network, the content including an advertisement. The session module is configured to detect a selection of the advertisement, initiate a session between the access device and the advertiser device in response to the selection, the advertiser device being associated with the advertisement, and receive feedback from the advertiser device. The allocation module is configured to allocate revenue based on the feedback. In some examples, the amount of the revenue is independent of the feedback.

BACKGROUND

The popularity of the Internet has made it a productive advertisingmedium. The online advertising market has continued to grow in recentyears, fueled in large measure by paid search advertising. In paidsearch advertising models, advertisers pay for placement of theiradvertisements within or alongside search results that are generated bysearch engines in response to queries received over the Internet. Thistype of advertising has become attractive to advertisers at leastbecause it can be targeted to potential consumers having sufficientinterest to submit related queries. In addition, paid search advertisingallows advertisers to pay based on quantifiable actions elicited byadvertisements. That is, the costs of an advertisement are directlyrelated to a measured quantity of actions elicited by the advertisement.

One popular form of paid search advertising allows advertisers to payfor each “click” (i.e., a click of a mouse) elicited by advertisements.This form of paid search advertising is commonly referred to aspay-per-click (“PPC”) or cost-per-click (“CPC”) advertising. In PPCadvertising, advertisers submit bids to a search engine for placement ofadvertisements within search results. Accordingly, the placement of theadvertisements within search results generated by the search engine isbased, at least in part, on the bids, with higher bids generally winningpreferential placement within the search results. Such bid-basedplacement techniques often encourage competing advertisers to drive upadvertising costs, thereby increasing the revenues collected by thesearch engine.

When a potential consumer submits a query to the search engine, thesearch engine responds by providing search results containing PPCadvertisements. If the potential consumer selects (e.g., clicks on) oneof the PPC advertisements, the search engine will direct the potentialconsumer to a site hosted by the corresponding advertiser and charge theadvertiser an agreed-upon cost-per-click amount. In theory, PPCadvertising provides a result-based advertising technique in whichadvertisers pay for actual interest shown in advertisements, with theinterest being measured in terms of the number of clicks onadvertisements.

Search engine affiliates also use PPC advertising for revenue. Anaffiliate may operate a site and team with a search engine to have PPCadvertisements published by the search engine posted on the affiliatesite. When a potential consumer visits an affiliate site and selects oneof the PPC advertisements delivered to the affiliate site by the searchengine, the potential consumer is directed to a site hosted by theadvertiser associated with the selected advertisement. The search enginecharges the advertiser for the click and shares the proceeds from theclick with the affiliate that generated the click.

Unfortunately, conventional PPC advertising models have a number ofshortcomings, including vulnerability to fraud and manipulation, as wellas inherent conflicts of interest. One significant threat to PPCadvertising is commonly referred to as “click fraud.” Click fraud occurswhen a person or automated process exploits PPC advertising models byclicking on a PPC advertisement with no intent to do business with thecorresponding advertiser.

There are two predominant types of click fraud—competitive click fraudand affiliate click fraud. Competitive click fraud occurs when anadvertiser clicks on a competitor's PPC advertisement in order to driveup and waste the competitor's advertising dollars on unproductiveclicks. Affiliate click fraud occurs when a person or machine associatedwith an affiliate site clicks on PPC advertisements on the affiliatesite in order to increase revenue. Both forms of click fraud increaseadvertising costs without providing any value to advertisers.

Affiliate click fraud reduces publisher revenues by allocatingadvertising proceeds to illegitimate or at least unproductive,affiliates that generate unproductive clicks. Competitive click fraudcan increase publisher revenue in the short term, but potentiallydecrease publisher revenue in the long term as advertisers who realizeartificially inflated customer acquisition costs may decide to spendtheir advertising dollars elsewhere.

Regardless of the type of click fraud or the motives behind it, clickfraud has become a significant problem for advertisers, search engines,and legitimate affiliates. Perpetrators have come up with schemes thatmake fraudulent clicks difficult to identify. Computer programs commonlyreferred to as “hitbots” have been developed to repeatedly click on PPCadvertisements. Some hitbots are highly sophisticated. For example,hitbots exist that are able to change or mask the Internet Protocol(“IP”) addresses associated with computers producing the clicks. Otherhitbots are able to hijack and control computers connected to theInternet and use the hijacked computers to produce clicks, often withthe operators of the hijacked computers being unaware. Perpetrators havealso been known to develop teams of people who are paid to click on PPCadvertisements. “Click farms,” as these teams are commonly called, havesprouted up throughout the world to make money simply for producingfraudulent clicks on PPC advertisements.

Search engines and other publishers of PPC advertisements have attemptedto combat click fraud. Electronic filters and human teams have beenemployed to identify click patterns that might be representative ofclick fraud. However, such forms of policing cannot identify allfraudulent clicks. Moreover, the policing efforts are expensive,especially when compared with the financial incentives to generatefraudulent clicks and the relative ease and low-cost with whichfraudulent clicks can be generated.

Another problem that click fraud introduces into PPC advertising is aninherent conflict of interest for search engines. On one hand, searchengines have an interest in policing and stopping click fraud to keepadvertisers satisfied. On the other hand, however, successfullyidentifying click fraud and issuing refunds to advertisers decreasessearch engine revenues. Therefore, while search engines are in a naturalposition to police click fraud, the search engines may to a certainextent lack motivation to identify and stop all fraudulent clicksbecause doing so would decrease revenues.

Clearly, conventional PPC advertising models are easy to manipulate anddifficult to police. Incredulous persons and entities have been and willmost likely continue to manipulate PPC advertising. Consequently,conventional PPC advertising models can inflate advertiser costs withoutany increase in returns.

Moreover, conventional PPC advertising models result in lower revenuesfor search engines and legitimate affiliates as they are forced to shareadvertising revenues with illegitimate affiliates perpetrating clickfraud.

Another form of paid search advertising has been viewed as a potentialremedy to click fraud. This form of advertising is commonly referred topay-per-action (“PPA”) or cost-per-action (“CPA”) advertising. In PPAadvertising, advertisers are charged when consumers both click on PPAadvertisements and complete another specified action. The action may beagreed upon in advance by an advertiser and a search engine publisherand may include actions such as a consumer submitting an order, making apurchase, or completing a registration.

While advertisers may find PPA advertising attractive because they wouldno longer be charged for unproductive clicks, search engine publishersmay be reluctant to employ PPA advertising because it may decreaserevenues and because of the ease with which advertisers could manipulateresults. Under conventional PPA advertising models, the results reportedby advertisers directly increase or decrease the payments made by theadvertisers, which models create a financial incentive to underreportresults. Because accounting efforts would shift to the advertisers, PPAadvertising models effectively put advertisers on their honor toaccurately report every action elicited by advertisements. Search enginepublishers would almost certainly insist on policing advertisers toensure that all billable actions are accurately reported. This wouldrequire burdensome and expensive policing of the advertisers. Despitethe shortcomings of conventional PPC advertising, search enginepublishers are unlikely to adopt a PPA system as it requires thatpublishers police advertisers and incoming revenue and further requires100% participation by advertisers on all sessions and transactions.

In sum, conventional paid search advertising models are easy tomanipulate and require substantial and expensive policing efforts tomaintain satisfaction among all parties involved. Click fraud has becomea serious threat to the existing PPC advertisement models. PPAadvertisement models might theoretically help combat click fraud. Asdescribed above, however, PPA advertisement models include a number ofshortcomings that may render such models impractical. Accordingly, thestate-of-the-art does not include a practical and viable paid searchadvertisement technology capable of overcoming problems associated withclick fraud.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings illustrate various embodiments of theprinciples described herein and are a part of the specification. Theillustrated embodiments are merely examples and do not limit the scopeof the disclosure. Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbersdesignate identical or similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary paid searchadvertising system, according to principles described herein.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary publisher subsystem of FIG. 1,according to principles described herein.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary paid search advertisingprocess, according to principles described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION I. Introduction

This specification describes systems and methods for paid searchadvertising. The systems and methods described herein allocateadvertising revenues based on feedback received from advertisers. Thefeedback may be descriptive of the results of sessions produced byadvertisements. The results-based feedback gives advertisers a reliable,measurable, and value-driven way to advertise.

Compared with conventional paid search advertising models, the systemsand methods described herein are easier to police, more difficult tomanipulate, and generally more productive for advertisers, search enginepublishers, and legitimate affiliates. Significantly, the systems andmethods described herein eliminate, or at least reduce, the financialincentives to perpetrate click fraud because selections ofadvertisements (e.g., clicking on an advertisement) by themselves do notincrease or decrease advertiser costs. Thus, click fraud cannot be usedby illegitimate affiliates to artificially inflate payments to them orby advertisers to drive up costs for competitors. Accordingly,advertisers can confidently use paid search advertising without many ofthe problems associated with conventional paid advertising models.

In addition, the systems and methods described herein generally provideincentive for advertisers to accurately report results because doing sowill reward productive sources of value without rewarding unproductivesources of clicks. Over time, accurate feedback provided by advertisersmay benefit the advertisers because the number of productive sources maytend to increase while unproductive sources take their businesselsewhere (e.g., a search engine using a conventional PPC advertisingmodel that rewards unproductive sources). Thus, to the benefit ofadvertisers, accurate reporting of results can increase theeffectiveness of advertisements published by a publisher implementingthe paid search advertising systems and methods described herein.

Unlike a conventional PPA advertising model, advertiser costs do notincrease or decrease based on the feedback provided by the advertiserbecause advertiser payment is disconnected from advertiser feedback.Accordingly, there is no incentive for advertisers to underreportresults. Because of the incentives for advertisers to voluntarily andaccurately report results, the systems and methods described hereinsignificantly reduce the policing efforts and costs commonly associatedwith both PPC and PPA conventional advertising models.

These and other uses and benefits of the systems and methods describedherein will become apparent upon consideration of the followingexamples.

II. Exemplary System View

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a paid search advertisement system 100.As shown in FIG. 1, system 100 may include access devices 110-1 through110-N (collectively “access devices 110”), affiliate devices 120-1through 120-J (collectively “affiliate devices 120”), advertiser devices130-1 through 130-K (collectively “advertiser devices 130”), andpublisher subsystem 140 communicatively coupled to one another by datacommunication network 150. In some examples, the data communicationnetwork 150 includes the Internet or World Wide Web. Access devices 110,affiliate devices 120, advertiser devices 130, and publisher subsystem140 may communicate over data communication network 150 using any knowncommunication technologies, devices, media, and protocols supportive ofremote communications, including, but not limited to, transmissionmedia, communications devices, Transmission Control Protocol (“TCP”),Internet Protocol (“IP”), File Transfer Protocol (“FTP”), telnet,Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”), socket connections,packet-switching technologies, circuit-switching technologies, wirelesscommunication technologies (e.g., cellular telephone and wireless accesstechnologies), and any other suitable communications technologies.

Users of system 100 may be grouped into different categories havingdifferent levels of access to different functions provided by system100. Users associated with access devices 110 may be referred to as“consumers,” users associated with affiliate devices 120 may be referredto as “affiliates,” users associated with advertiser devices 130 may bereferred to as “advertisers,” and users associated with publishersubsystem 140 may be referred to as “publishers.”

Through access devices 110, consumers are able to interact withadvertiser devices 130, including accessing and considering contenthosted by the advertiser devices 130, providing input to and receivingoutput from the advertiser devices 130, and participating in sessionsbetween access devices 110 and advertiser devices 130. Because consumersmay not be aware of advertisers, or how to access advertiser devices130, advertisers typically pay publisher subsystem 140 for placement ofadvertisements within content published by publisher subsystem 140.Typically, the content includes keyword search results, and the bids arefor the right to have advertisements included in keyword search resultsthat are published during a predefined time interval.

The content may be published on a site hosted by publisher subsystem 140or one or more sites hosted by affiliate devices 120. Accordingly,consumers can use access devices 110 to interact with affiliate devices120 and publisher subsystem 140 over data communication network 150 toview content, including published advertisements associated with theadvertisers. When consumers select published advertisements (e.g., byclicking on a hyperlink of an advertisement), affiliate devices 120and/or publisher subsystem 140 may direct the access devices 110 used bythe consumers to sites hosted by advertiser devices 130 to beginsessions between the access devices 110 and respective advertiserdevices 130. Publisher subsystem 140 may also provide advertiser devices130 with a session identifier for each session, as described in moredetail further below.

Sessions between access devices 110 and advertiser devices 130 mayproduce different events and results, including, but not limited to,completion of sales to consumers, placement of orders, submission ofinformation, completion of registrations and/or applications, downloads,receipt of referrals, receipt of subscriptions, or no measurable actionsother than initiation of the sessions.

Advertisers may provide feedback about the sessions to publishersubsystem 140. The feedback is typically representative results producedduring sessions. The feedback may indicate whether the sessions addedvalue to the advertisers (e.g., whether or not a sale was completed), orthe feedback may indicate the quality or amount of value added toadvertisers. The feedback may be provided by advertiser devices 130 topublisher subsystem 140 over data communication network 150automatically and without human intervention, or in any other suitablemanner.

Publisher subsystem 140 may be configured to allocate advertisingrevenues (e.g., bid amounts paid by advertisers) based on the feedbackreceived from the advertisers. The revenues are typically allocatedamong sources of the results represented by the feedback, including thepublisher and any of the affiliates that produced sessions resulting inpositive feedback, as described further below.

While an exemplary system 100 is shown in FIG. 1, those skilled in theart will recognize that the exemplary components illustrated in theFigure are not intended to be limiting. Indeed, those skilled in the artwill recognize that other alternative hardware environments andimplementations may be used. Each of the components of system 100 willnow be described in additional detail.

A. Data Communication Network

Data communication network 150 may include one or more networks suitablefor carrying communications between access devices 110, affiliatedevices 120, advertiser devices 130, and publisher subsystem 140. Forexample, data communication network 150 may include, but is not limitedto, the Internet, World Wide Web and/or one or more intranets, localarea networks, wide area networks, voice communication networks (e.g.,the Public Switched Telephone Network (“PSTN”), Voice over InternetProtocol (“VoIP”), and wireless telephone networks), video and/or audiobroadcasting networks (e.g., satellite and cable television networks),access networks, packet-switched networks, circuit-switched networks,and any other communications networks capable of carrying communicationsbetween access devices 110, affiliate devices 120, advertiser devices130, and/or publisher subsystem 140. Data communication network 150 mayinclude any devices, media, and technologies helpful for carryingcommunications between access devices 110, affiliate devices 120,advertiser devices 130, and publisher subsystem 140.

B. Access Devices

Each access device 110 may include any device or devices physically orremotely accessible to one or more consumers and that allows a consumerto provide input to and/or receive output from affiliate devices 120,advertiser devices 130, and/or publisher subsystem 140 over datacommunication network 150. For example, access device 110 can include,but is not limited to, one or more desktop computers, laptop computers,tablet computers, personal computers, personal data/digital assistants,cellular telephones, satellite pagers, wireless internet devices,embedded computers, video phones, network interface cards, modems,optical network terminals, mainframe computers, mini-computers,programmable logic devices, vehicles, entertainment devices, gamingdevices, music devices, wireless communication devices, wirelinecommunication devices, Internet Protocol (“IP”) devices (e.g., IP-basedphones), Session Initiation Protocol (“SIP”) devices (e.g., SIP phones),set-top boxes, televisions, display devices, and any other devicescapable of communicating with affiliate devices 120, advertiser devices130, and/or publisher subsystem 140 over data communication network 150.Access device 110 can also include various peripherals such as aterminal, keyboard, keypad, mouse, screen, printer, stylus, microphone,audio speaker, input device, output device, or any other apparatus thatcan help a user interact with access device 110.

Access devices 110 may be configured to access sites (e.g., web sites)hosted by affiliate devices 120, advertiser devices 130, and publishersubsystem 140. In particular, access devices 110 can participate insessions with sites hosted by publisher subsystem 140 and/or any of theaffiliate devices 120 to simply receive and present content forconsideration by consumers, or to submit requests for specific content,including requests in the form search queries (e.g., keyword searches).In response, content may be received by access devices 110 forconsideration by consumers. The content typically includes paidadvertisements associated with advertisers. Accordingly, consumers canselect advertisements (e.g., click on hyperlinks included in theadvertisements) to be directed to additional information.

When a consumer selects a particular advertisement, the access device110 being used by the consumer is directed to a particular advertiserdevice 130 associated with the advertisement, and a session is initiatedbetween the access device 110 and the advertiser device 130. Asdescribed further below, sessions between access devices 110 andadvertiser devices 130 can produce different results.

Access devices 110 may include instructions for generating and operatinguser interfaces. These instructions may be in any computer-readableformat, including software, firmware, microcode, and the like. Whenexecuted by a processor (not shown) of a particular access device 110,the instructions may present one or more user interfaces to a user. Theuser interfaces may be configured to present information to and receiveinput from consumers, including information associated with searchresults, advertisements, selections of advertisements, and sessions withsites hosted by affiliate devices 120, advertiser devices 130, and/orpublisher subsystem 140. The user interfaces may comprise one or moregraphical user interfaces (“GUI”) capable of displaying information andreceiving input from users. In certain embodiments, the user interfacesinclude one or more web browsers, such as Internet Explorer® offered byMicrosoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.

Access devices 110 may be configured to utilize any suitable accesstechnologies to access data communication network 150, including, butnot limited to, known access networks, media, and protocols.

C. Advertiser Devices

Advertiser devices 130 may be configured to communicate with any of theaccess devices 110, affiliate devices 120, and publisher subsystem 140of system 100 over data communication network 150. Each advertiserdevice 130 may include one or more devices configured to communicateover data communication network 150, including, but not limited to,hosting one or more sites, communicating with publisher subsystem 140(e.g., providing bids and/or feedback to publisher subsystem 140), andparticipating in sessions with access devices 130. For example,advertiser device 130 can include, but is not limited to, one or moreservers (e.g., web servers), computers, network access devices, and anyother devices capable of communicating with access devices 110,affiliate devices 120, and/or publisher subsystem 140 over datacommunication network 150.

Advertisers may use advertiser devices 130 to host sites (e.g., websites) providing content associated with the advertisers. Access devices110 can access the sites hosted by advertiser devices 130. Accordingly,sessions can be conducted between access devices 110 and advertiserdevices 130. The sessions allow consumers to interact with the siteshosted by advertiser devices 130 to produce different results.

A session between an access device 110 and an advertiser device 130 mayallow a consumer to perform a variety of actions, including, but notlimited to, considering content hosted by the advertiser device 130,researching services or products, providing information (e.g., contactand payment information) to advertiser device 130, making a purchase,completing a registration, application, or survey, providing a consumerreview of a product or service, placing an order, completing a sale,providing a referral, submitting a question or an answer to a question,and any other interaction between the consumer and the advertiser device130. Any of the above-listed actions may be predefined as an event orevents that add value to the advertiser. In certain embodiments, apredefined event includes completion of a sale during a session.

Advertiser devices 130 may be configured to provide feedback topublisher subsystem 140 for each session. The feedback may indicatewhether one or more predefined events occurred during a session (i.e.,whether the session resulted in value being added to the advertiser).For example, a predefined session event may include a sale being made toa consumer. When a particular session results in a sale, thecorresponding advertiser device 130 may provide positive feedback topublisher subsystem 140. When the session does not result in a sale, theadvertiser device 130 may provide negative feedback to publishersubsystem 140. In certain embodiments, positive feedback is provided inthe form of a binary “1,” and negative feedback is provided in the formof a binary “0.” Of course, other predefined events may be used todetermine whether to provide positive or negative feedback to publishersubsystem 140.

In other embodiments, session feedback may be descriptive of a level orquality of value added to an advertiser during a session. For example, arating scale could be used to identify different levels of value. Therating scale may be numerical (e.g., a scale of zero to ten) and may berepresentative of monetary values produced by session (e.g., the amountof a sale).

Different rating scales may be employed for different keywords,products, services, markets, product categories, service categories,etc. The publisher could define the scales. The scales could bedetermined by advertiser vote (e.g., selected from options offered bythe publisher). In this manner, advertisers associated with a commoncategory (e.g., advertisers selling similar products) are able toprovide uniform feedback based on a predefined scale.

It is also anticipated that different feedback may be provided fordifferent predefined session events. For example, a high feedback scoremay be provided when a session results in a sale, a medium feedbackscore may be provided when a session results in a consumer providingregistration information, and a low feedback score may be provided whena session results in a consumer providing a review of a product orservice. The different feedback scores may be provided to publishersubsystem 140 individually, or they may be batched and provided topublisher subsystem 140, or feedback scores may be provided individuallyand subsequently batched. Publisher might request both the individualfeedback scores and a subsequent batch report so that the batch reportcould confirm that the individual feedback scores were accuratelyreported.

In certain embodiments, the providing of feedback is voluntary. That is,advertisers elect whether or not to provide feedback for sessions.However, as mentioned above, system 100 provides incentive foradvertisers to provide feedback, including advertisements becoming moreeffective as productive sources of results are rewarded and as lack ofreward motivates unproductive sources of clicks to either move toanother publisher or to change to become productive.

Over time, unproductive and illegitimate affiliates will likely move tobecome affiliates in conventional PPC advertising or other models thatcontinue to reward unproductive clicks. Conversely, legitimate andproductive affiliates may be motivated to migrate to the publisher usingpublisher subsystem 140 because system 100 generally allocates a largershare of advertising revenues to productive affiliates. By notallocating shares of revenues to unproductive affiliates, revenues canincrease for the publisher and for productive affiliates.

Even if advertisers do not provide feedback for every session, system100 is still generally able to allocate revenues in an appropriatemanner so as to reward productive sources of value without rewardingunproductive sources of clicks. The above-described incentives toprovide feedback should motivate advertisers to provide sufficientfeedback for determining an accurate, representative allocation, basedon results. Thus, system 100 does not require one hundred percentparticipation from all advertisers all of the time.

Of course, advertiser devices 130 may be configured to automaticallyprovide feedback upon detection of one or more predefined eventsoccurring during sessions. This makes it simple for advertisers toprovide feedback and ensures that sufficient feedback is received foraccurate identification of sources of value and proper allocation ofadvertising revenue.

The feedback may include limited information (e.g., a simple positive ornegative indication) so as to protect information that may be consideredproprietary or sensitive to consumers and advertiser. In effect,advertisers are able to provide meaningful feedback without having todisclose proprietary or sensitive information related to the business ofthe advertiser or to consumers. The feedback may generally includeinformation that is indicative of results but that also allowsadvertisers to provide the feedback without opening their accountingbooks to the publisher. Likewise, publishers may deliver a session toadvertisers without disclosing the source of any session, whether fromany publisher device 140 or any affiliate device 120.

Advertiser devices 130 may be configured to submit bids for placement ofadvertisements to publisher subsystem 140 over data communicationnetwork 150. Bid submissions may be automated, or advertisers may useadvertiser devices 130 to submit bids. Of course, the advertisers maysubmit bids to publisher subsystem 140 in any suitable manner.

The bids are typically for placement of advertisements within contentpublished by publisher subsystem 140. Higher bids may win preferentialplacement of advertisements within content published by publishersubsystem 140. Of course, bids may be just one factor, and publishersubsystem 140 may take other factors into account to determine placementof advertisements. For example, publisher subsystem 140 may baseadvertisement placement on a variety of factors, including, but notlimited to, relevancy of advertisements to search queries (e.g.,relevancy of advertisements to keywords included in queries), consumerreviews, closing rates (described further below), and any other factorsuitable for determining a placement of an advertisement withinpublished content.

In certain embodiments, the bids are for placement of advertisements incontent published by publisher subsystem 140 during a predefined timeinterval. Accordingly, for content published during the predefined timeinterval, placement of advertisements within the content will bedetermined, at least in part, on the bids that are valid for thepredetermined time interval. Placement rights may be different outsideof the predefined time interval, with different bids being used todetermine placements during subsequent time intervals.

The predefined time interval may be an hour, day, week, or any suitablelength of time. The predefined time interval may be defined as a lengthof time that is designed to increase advertising revenues. For example,if the predefined time interval is approximately a week, the value ofowning a winning bid becomes more valuable than for a short period oftime. This may tend to motivate advertisers to increase their bidsbecause of the importance of winning preferential placement for anextended period of time.

As described further below, the content within which advertisements willbe published may include search results generated by a search engine inresponse to a request (e.g., a search query). Requests may be providedby access devices 110 directly to publisher subsystem 140 or indirectlythrough affiliate devices 120.

D. Affiliate Devices

Affiliate devices 120 may be configured to host sites that may includeadvertisements, or links to advertisements, provided by publishersubsystem 140. Search tools, or links to search tools, provided bypublisher subsystem 140 may also be accessible through the sites hostedby affiliate devices 120, as will be understood by those skilled in theart.

Consumers may use access devices 110 to access the sites hosted byaffiliate devices 120 over data communication network 150. Accordingly,consumers are able to access advertisements and/or search tools providedby publisher subsystem 140 through affiliate devices 120. When aparticular consumer uses an access device 110 to select on anadvertisement in a site hosted by an affiliate device 120, the accessdevice 110 may be directed to the advertiser device 130 associated withthe selected advertisement. Typically, the affiliate device 120 directsthe access device 110 to publisher subsystem 140, which then directs theaccess device 110 to the advertiser device 130. The directing of theaccess device 110 to the advertiser device 130 initiates a sessionbetween the two devices.

Typically, affiliates agree with the publisher to share revenues paid tothe publisher by the advertisers. The share of revenues may be based onthe value that the affiliates produced for the advertisers, as indicatedby feedback received from the advertisers. For example, an affiliate mayreceive a share of revenues based on the number of sessions betweenaccess devices 110 and advertiser devices 130 that originated at anaffiliate device 120 and for which positive feedback was received fromthe advertisers. This number may be compared to numbers produced by thepublisher and other affiliates to determine a ratio at which advertisingrevenues will be allocated between the publisher and the affiliates.Examples of revenue-sharing between the publisher and affiliates will bedescribed further below.

E. Publisher Subsystem

Publisher subsystem 140 may include any device or combination of devices(e.g., servers) useful for communicating with access devices 110,affiliate devices 120, and advertiser devices 130 over datacommunication network 150. Publisher subsystem 140 may be configured toinclude and/or utilize any suitable network access technologies,including, but not limited to, servers (e.g., web servers), securitytechnologies, access levels, predefined access rules, firewalls, userlists, sign-on technologies, content hosting technologies, and any othertechnologies for communicating with access devices 110, affiliatedevices 120, and advertiser devices 130 over data communication network150.

In certain embodiments, publisher subsystem 140 is implemented in one ormore computers. Publisher subsystem 140 may include any computerhardware and/or instructions (e.g., software programs), or combinationsof software and hardware, configured to perform the processes describedherein. In particular, it should be understood that publisher subsystem140 may be implemented on one physical computing device or may beimplemented on more than one physical computing device. Accordingly,publisher subsystem 140 may include any one of a number of computingdevices known to those skilled in the art (e.g., one or more servers),and may employ any of a number of computer operating systems known tothose skilled in the art, including, but by no means limited to, knownversions and/or varieties of the Microsoft Windows® operating system,the Unix operating system, and the Linux operating system.

Accordingly, those skilled in the art will recognize that the processesdescribed herein may be implemented at least in part as instructionsexecutable by one or more computing devices. In general, a processor(e.g., a microprocessor) receives instructions, e.g., from a memory, acomputer-readable medium, etc., and executes those instructions, therebyperforming one or more processes, including one or more of the processesdescribed herein. Such instructions may be stored and transmitted usinga variety of known computer-readable media.

A computer-readable medium (also referred to as a processor-readablemedium) includes any medium that participates in providing data (e.g.,instructions) that may be read by a computer (e.g., by a processor of acomputer). Such a medium may take many forms, including, but not limitedto, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media.Non-volatile media may include, for example, optical or magnetic disksand other persistent memory. Volatile media may include, for example,dynamic random access memory (“DRAM”), which typically constitutes amain memory. Transmission media may include, for example, coaxialcables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprisea system bus coupled to a processor of a computer. Transmission mediamay include or convey acoustic waves, light waves, and electromagneticemissions, such as those generated during radio frequency (“RF”) andinfrared (“IR”) data communications. Common forms of computer-readablemedia include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk,magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any otheroptical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium withpatterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EEPROM, any othermemory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a computer canread.

Publisher subsystem 140 may receive a variety of information from accessdevices 110, affiliate devices 120, and advertiser devices 130. Forexample, publisher subsystem 140 may receive data representative of userregistration and/or logon information, information associated with ordescriptive of requests (e.g., search queries), bids submitted byadvertisers, feedback provided by advertisers, and advertisementselections. Publisher subsystem 140 may also make a variety ofinformation available to access devices 110, affiliate devices 120 andadvertiser devices 130. For example, publisher subsystem 140 may providedata representative of user registration and/or logon information,information associated with bids or bid solicitations, published content(e.g., search results including advertisements), and sessionidentifiers.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components of publishersubsystem 140. As shown in FIG. 2, publisher subsystem 140 may includebid module 210, publish module 220, session module 230, data store 240,and allocation module 250 communicatively coupled to one another asshown. Session module 230 may be configured to provide sessionidentifier 260 to a particular advertiser device 130 and to receivefeedback 270 from the advertiser device 130. Elements and functions ofthe exemplary publisher subsystem 140 of FIG. 2 will now be described inadditional detail.

1. Bid Module

Bid module 210 may be configured to solicit and receive bids fromadvertisers, including bids submitted by advertiser devices 130 overdata communication network 150. Bids may be solicited using an open orsealed bid process, as will be understood by those skilled in the art.Bid module 210 may be configured to provide received bid data to datastore 240, which can store the data for subsequent access and use,including making determinations as to how the bid amounts will beallocated among the publisher and one or more affiliates.

Bid module 210 may be configured to provide templates (e.g., HypertextMark-up Language (“HTML”) templates) to advertiser devices 130, thetemplates being designed to accept input from advertisers associatedwith the advertiser devices 130. The templates may define userinterfaces helpful for the input of bid data.

Bid module 210 may be configured to solicit and receive other types ofinput from advertiser devices 130. For example, bid module 210 mayreceive advertisement data from advertiser devices 130. Advertisementdata may include information associated with paid advertisementsincluding, but not limited to, billing information, advertisementcontent, addresses associated with advertiser devices 130 and/or siteshosted by advertiser devices 130, hyperlinks, Hypertext Markup Language(“HTML”) templates, advertiser identifiers, keywords, metadata,metatags, and any other information potentially helpful for publishingadvertisements, directing consumers to sites hosted by advertiserdevices 130, communicating with advertiser devices 130, billingadvertisers, and allocating advertising revenues.

2. Publish Module

Publish module 220 may be configured to receive requests for contentfrom access devices 110 and/or affiliate devices 120 over datacommunication network 150. The requests may include search queriessubmitted by consumers to either publisher subsystem 140 or affiliatedevices 120. The search queries may include one or more keywords to beused to search for content related to the keywords.

Publish module 220 may be configured to search for and identify contentrelated to keywords (or other information) included in search queries.Publish module 220 may employ any electronic search technologiessuitable for searching for and identifying related content, includingany search engine technologies known to those skilled in the art.

Publish module 220 may be configured to publish the identified contentfor access over data communication network 150. Content may be publishedon a site hosted by publisher subsystem 140 or on a site hosted by aparticular affiliate device 120. The published content may include or bein the form of search results and may include one or more paidadvertisements. As described above, the placement of the paidadvertisements within the search results may be based at least in parton bids received from the advertisers associated with theadvertisements. Publish module 220 may also store the identified contentto data store 240.

Consumers may use access devices 110 to access the published content andto select one or more advertisements included in the published content.

Publish module 220 may be configured to publish content over datacommunication network 150 in a wide variety of formats. For example, thecontent may include search results, as described above. By way ofanother example, the content may include video content (e.g., televisionprogramming content) having advertisements included therein.

3. Session Module

Session module 230 may be configured to recognize consumers selecting(e.g., clicking on) advertisements included in published content. Forexample, session module 230 may be configured to detect, over datacommunication network 150, when a hyperlink included in or otherwiseassociated with an advertisement is selected by a consumer using anaccess device 110.

Upon detecting a selection of a particular advertisement, session module230 may initiate a session between the access device 110 (e.g., accessdevice 110-1) and an advertiser device 130 (e.g., advertiser device130-1) that is associated with the selected advertisement. To initiatethe session, session module 230 may direct the access device 110 to theadvertiser device 130 and/or to a site hosted by the advertiser device130, as will be understood by those skilled in the art.

As part of initiating the session, session module 230 may be configuredto provide session identifier 260 to the advertiser device 130. Thesession identifier 260 may be in any form and include any informationsuitable for identifying the session, such as a numeric or alphanumericcode, for example. The session identifier 260 may be used in place ofother types of information so as to limit the information made availableto the advertiser device 130. This may be helpful for protecting system100 from manipulation. For example, the use of unique sessionidentifiers (e.g., session identifier 260) can make it difficult foradvertisers to manipulate the allocation of advertising revenues becausethe advertisers are not provided with information related to the sourcesof sessions. Accordingly, advertisers are unable to favor a particularaffiliate because the advertisers are unaware which sources are beingrated by feedback (e.g., feedback 270).

Session module 230 may be configured to perform additional operations tolimit the information made available to advertiser devices 130. Forexample, session module 230 may be configured to mask the InternetProtocol (“IP”) addresses associated with affiliate devices 120 and/orpublisher subsystem 140. Masking of IP addresses will be understood bythose skilled in the art. Publisher subsystem 140 may be configured toprovide additional information (e.g., IP addresses and/or informationabout sources of results) to advertiser devices 130 once feedback hasbeen received.

Sessions initiated by session module 230, as well as the sessionidentifiers associated with the sessions may be recorded and stored todata store 240. Sessions may be conducted between access devices 110 andadvertiser devices 130 in any of the ways described above and mayinclude occurrences of one or more predefined session events, such asany of the exemplary session events listed above. As previouslydescribed, advertiser devices 130 may be configured to provide feedback(e.g., feedback 270) to publisher subsystem 140 based on the occurrencesor lack of occurrences of predefined events during the session.

Accordingly, session module 230 may be configured to receive feedback270 from the advertiser device 130. Session module 230 is able toassociate feedback 270 with a corresponding session identifier 260. Thefeedback 270 may be stored in data store 240, along with the sessionidentifier 260 associated with the feedback 270. The feedback 270 mayinclude any of the data described above, including data representativeof whether a predefined event occurred during the session.

In other embodiments, session module 230 may be configured to receivefeedback from advertisers without initiating sessions between accessdevices 110 and advertiserdevices 130. In such embodiments, sessionmodule 230 may simply receive feedback from advertisers, and use thefeedback to identify sources (e.g., publishers of an advertisement) thatled consumers to initiate sessions with the advertisers, the sessionsbeing the reasons for the feedback. For example, publish module 220 maypublish content over data communication network 150, and a consumer mayreact to an advertisement in the content by contacting the advertiserassociated with the advertisement. The advertiser may use a particularadvertiser device 130 to provide feedback to session module 230, thefeedback being descriptive of one or more results produced during thesession.

4. Data Store

Data store 240 may include one or more data storage mediums, devices, orconfigurations and may employ any type, form, and combination of storagemedia known to those skilled in the art, including hard disk drives,read-only memory, caches, databases, optical media, and random accessmemory. Data store 240 may include any known technologies useful forstoring, updating, modifying, accessing, retrieving, and deleting data.

Data store 240 may include any suitable type or form of electronic datarepresentative of or associated with session feedback, sessionidentifiers, user access privileges, bids received from advertisers,advertisements, information associated with advertisers, affiliates, andconsumers, information associated with access devices 110, affiliatedevices 120, and advertiser devices 130, and any other information thatmay be potentially useful for allocating advertising revenues based onsession feedback. The data may be stored in extensible markup language(“XML”), or in any suitable form.

While FIG. 2 illustrates data store 240 as being included in publishersubsystem 140, this is not limiting. For example, publisher subsystem140 may be configured to store and/or retrieve data to/from externaldata sources. Any data potentially helpful for collecting sessionfeedback and allocating advertising revenues based on the feedback maybe retrieved from any suitable and accessible internal or external datasource.

Feedback and session identifiers stored in data store 240 can be used toallocate advertising revenues. The data may be organized per advertiser,advertiser device 130, advertisement, or other suitable criteria.Feedback for a particular advertiser may be aggregated during or after apredefined time interval to which a particular bid submitted by theadvertiser is associated. After the predefined time interval hasexpired, the aggregate of the feedback received during the predefinedtime interval may be used to determine an allocation of the advertisingrevenue (i.e., an allocation of the bid amount) paid by the advertiserfor placement of the advertisement during the predefined time interval.

5. Allocation Module

Allocation module 250 may be configured to allocate advertising revenuesbased on feedback received from advertisers. The allocation of revenuemay be determined for each advertiser and for each predefined timeinterval. For example, if a particular advertiser submits a bid forplacement of an advertisement during a predefined time interval,allocation module 250 can use feedback received from the advertiser forany sessions occurring during the predefined time interval to determinean allocation of the bid between sources of the sessions having positivefeedback. Typically, the amount of the bid will be allocated between thepublisher and one or more affiliates, depending on a ratio of positivefeedback received for each source.

For instance, if an advertiser submits a bid of $500 for placement of anadvertisement during a predefined time interval, after expiration of thepredefined time interval, allocation module 250 is able to allocate the$500 based on feedback received from the advertiser during thepredefined time interval. If twenty-five sessions were initiated duringthe predefined time interval, and feedback received from the advertiserindicated that ten of the twenty-five sessions resulted in an occurrenceof a predefined event (e.g., a sale), the $500 would be allocatedbetween the sources of the ten productive sessions having positivefeedback.

The $500 may be allocated to the sources in proportion to the number ofproductive sessions that each source produced. For example, if publishersubsystem 140 was the source of six of the ten productive sessions,affiliate device 120-1 was the source of three of the ten productivesessions, affiliate device 120-2 was the source of none of the tenproductive sessions, and affiliate device 120-J was the source of one ofthe ten productive sessions, allocation module 250 would allocate the$500 at a ratio of sixty percent (60%) to the publisher associated withpublisher subsystem 140, thirty percent (30%) to the affiliateassociated with affiliate device 120-1, zero percent (0%) to theaffiliate associated with affiliate device 120-2, and ten percent (10%)to the affiliate associated with affiliate device 120-J. In other words,$300 would be allocated to the publisher, $150 would be allocated to thefirst affiliate, no money would be allocated to the second affiliate,and $50 would be allocated to the last affiliate. Of course, thepublisher may deduct fees from the shares to be distributed to theaffiliates, as will be understood by those skilled in the art.

Publisher subsystem 140 may be configured such that the feedback fromadvertisers is used to determine the allocation of advertiser costs butdoes not affect the amount of costs. In other words, the costs to theadvertiser may be independent of the feedback received from advertisers.For example, the $500 bid received from the advertiser in the precedingexample will not increase or decrease based on the feedback receivedfrom advertisers. The feedback determines the allocation of the $500 bidand not the amount of the bid. In other words, system 100 provides anallocation-per-feedback advertising model. Because feedback has noeffect on advertiser costs (i.e., bid amounts), advertisers do not havea financial incentive to underreport results (e.g., the occurrences ofpredefined events during sessions). The disconnection between advertiserfeedback and cost makes system 100 easy to police when compared toconventional PPC and PPA advertising models.

The disconnection between number of clicks or sessions and advertisercost also broadens the type of productive content that advertisers mayinclude in advertisements. For example, advertisers are not limited tothe use of hyperlinks to initiate sessions between advertisers andconsumers. For example, an advertisement may include a message promptinga consumer to call a telephone number.

System 100 can help increase revenues for the publisher. Increases inrevenues may come from one or more sources, including savings onexpenses that would have normally been spent to police conventional paidadvertising implementations, elimination or reduction of revenuedistributions to unproductive or illegitimate affiliates, an increase inthe number of productive affiliates attracted to the team with thepublisher by the greater share of revenues paid to productiveaffiliates, and an increased desire on the part of current and newaffiliates to develop more productive content due to the greater rewardsof creating productive content.

Moreover, advertisers are not limited by maximum cost ceilings commonlyused in conventional pay-per-click advertising models. In such models,an advertiser often set a maximum amount that could be charged to theadvertiser. Once the number of clicks on the advertiser's advertisementcaused the maximum charge to be reached, the advertisement wouldnormally be removed from published content, effectively pulling theadvertisement. This can prevent advertisers from obtaining additionalsales. System 100 addresses this problem by treating bid amountsindependently of results. Accordingly, system 100 promotes theacquisition of results throughout a predefined time interval duringwhich an advertisement has a paid right to be presented with publishedcontent. Increased revenue for advertisers may make advertisers morewilling to increase bid amounts to win placement of advertisements,thereby increasing revenues for the publisher and any productiveaffiliates. Thus, system 100 helps maximize revenues.

In some cases, publisher revenues may also be increased by allowingadvertisers to bid for placement rights that are effective during anextended period of time. This enhances the importance of bids, which maydrive up bid amounts. In addition, advertisers can reduce bidding costsby not having to bid as often as is common in conventional paid searchadvertising models. Increased importance and increased convenience maylead to increased bids from advertisers.

Feedback may also be used to influence the placement of advertisementsin published content. For example, the feedback may be used to determinea result rate for an advertisement or advertiser, and publish module 220may be configured to factor the result rate into the placement of anadvertisement within published content. This helps publish module 220 toprioritize relevant and successful advertisements, thereby increasingthe relevancy of the content included in the search results.

The use of results rates to determine placement of advertisements maygive advertisers an incentive to over-report actual results in order toreceive priority placement in search results. However, publishersubsystem 140 may be configured to identify when results are inflated ormanipulated by advertisers. As described above, the use of sessionidentifiers can prevent advertisers from knowing which sources are beingrated by session feedback. Therefore, it would be nearly impossible foran advertiser to know conversion rates delivered by the affiliates, asreported by other advertisers. Accordingly, publisher subsystem 140 maybe configured to compare result rates reported by any particularadvertiser with the result rates reported by other advertisers and toidentify any extraordinary anomalies. Such anomalies may be defined asdifferences that exceed a predetermined threshold. This allows publishersubsystem 140 to easily monitor and flag feedback that is out of linewith results reported by other advertisers. Allocation module 250 may beconfigured to disregard results that are flagged as being out of linewith other reported results in order to avoid allocating revenue toaffiliates that may be cooperating with an advertiser to provideinflated positive feedback that unjustly enriches the affiliate. If thepublisher considers factors such as advertiser closing ratios in itsranking of advertisements, allocation module 250 may also be configuredto disregard results that are flagged as being out of line with otherreported results in order to prevent an advertiser from manipulatingtheir ranking by inflating positive feedback on some or all sessions.Comparing the feedback from one advertiser with feedback scoresestablished by numerous other advertisers may identify and preventattempts to cheat or manipulate system 100.

III. Exemplary Process View

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary paid search advertising process. WhileFIG. 3 illustrates exemplary steps according to one embodiment, otherembodiments may omit, add to, reorder, and/or modify any of the stepsshown in FIG. 3.

In step 310, a bid is received from an advertiser. Step 310 may beperformed in any of the ways described above, including an advertiserusing a device (e.g., advertiser device 130-1) to provide a bid topublisher subsystem 140 over a data communication network (e.g., datacommunication network 150). The bid may be for placement of anadvertisement in content published during a predefined time interval, asdescribed above.

In step 320, a request for content is received. Step 320 may beperformed in any of the ways described above, including receiving arequest (e.g., a search query) for content directly or indirectly from aconsumer using an access device (e.g., access device 110-1).

In step 330, content is published in response to the request. Step 330may be performed in any of the ways described above, including postingthe content to a site hosted by publisher subsystem 140 or an affiliatedevice (e.g., affiliate device 120-1) such that the content is availableto the consumer through an access device. As described above, thepublished content may include one or more advertisements associated withadvertisers, including an advertisement associated with the bid receivedin step 310.

In step 340, a selection of an advertisement (e.g., the advertisementassociated with the bid received in step 310) included in the content isdetected. Step 340 may be performed in any of the ways described above.

In step 350, a session is initiated between an access device and anadvertiser device associated with the selected advertisement. Step 350may be performed in any of the ways described above, including theaccess device being directed to a site hosted by the advertiser device.

In step 360, a session identifier (e.g., session identifier 260) isprovided to the advertiser device. Step 360 may be performed in any ofthe ways described above, including session module 230 determining andproviding data representative of the session identifier to theadvertiser device.

In step 370, feedback (e.g., feedback 270) is received from theadvertiser device. Step 370 may be performed in any of the waysdescribed above, and the feedback may include data representative of anyof the information described above, including an indication of resultsproduced by the session. Step 370 may include aggregating feedbackreceived from the advertiser device over a predefined time interval, asdescribed above.

In step 380, revenue is allocated based on the feedback. The revenue mayinclude the amount of the bid received in step 310. Step 380 may beperformed in any of the ways described above, including allocating therevenue among the publisher and one or more affiliates based on a ratioof productive sessions initiated by publisher subsystem 140 and one ormore affiliate devices 120, as indicated by the feedback received instep 370. The allocation generally rewards productive sources of resultswithout rewarding sources of sessions that do not add value toadvertisers.

IV. Alternative Embodiments

The preceding description has been presented only to illustrate anddescribe embodiments of the principles described herein. It is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to any precise formdisclosed. The principles described herein may be practiced otherwisethan is specifically explained and illustrated without departing fromtheir spirit or scope. For example, the principles described herein maybe implemented in a wide variety of electronic marketing applications,including, but not limited to, online search advertising, paid onlinesearch advertising, paid advertising, advertising associated withInternet Protocol based (“IP-based”) video applications (e.g., IPtelevision), and any other marketing application in which advertisercosts can be allocated (e.g., among the publisher of advertising contentand one or more affiliates of the publisher) based on feedback receivedfrom advertisers. It is intended that the scope of the invention bedefined by the following claims.

1. A system configured to communicate with an access device and anadvertiser device over a data communication network, the systemcomprising: a processor; memory in electronic communication with theprocessor; a publish module stored in said memory configured to, whenaccessed by said processor, publish content for access over the datacommunication network for a pre-determined period of time in response toa bid amount paid by said advertiser device to said system, the contentincluding an advertisement; a session module stored in said memoryconfigured to, when accessed by said processor: detect a selection ofthe advertisement, initiate a session between the access device and theadvertiser device in response to the selection, the advertiser devicebeing associated with the advertisement, receive voluntary feedback fromthe advertiser device, and generate and transmit a unique sessionidentifier associated with said session to the advertiser device and toassociate said voluntary feedback to said unique session identifier,wherein said unique session identifier identifies a publishing source ofsaid advertisement, and wherein an identity of said publishing source ismasked from said advertiser device; and an allocation module stored insaid memory configured to, when accessed by said processor, allocatesaid bid amount based on said voluntary feedback; wherein said bidamount paid by the advertiser is independent of said voluntaryadvertiser feedback.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein said voluntaryfeedback is indicative of whether a predefined event occurred duringsaid session.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein said voluntary feedbackis positive when said predefined event occurred during said session andnegative when said predefined event did not occur during said session.4. The system of claim 2, wherein said predefined event includes atleast one of a sale, a completion of a registration, a download, acompletion of an application, a receipt of a referral, a receipt of asubscription, and a placement of an order.
 5. The system of claim 1,wherein said voluntary feedback is indicative of an amount of valueprovided to an advertiser associated with the advertiser device duringsaid session.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein said voluntary feedbackis based on a numerical scale.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein saidallocation module is configured to allocate the bid amount among apublisher associated with said publish module and at least one affiliateof the publisher based on said feedback.
 8. The system of claim 1,further comprising a bid module stored in said memory configured toreceive a bid from the advertiser device over the data communicationnetwork, said bid being for placement of the advertisement in thecontent for said pre-determined period of time.
 9. The system of claim8, wherein said allocation module is further configured to allocate thebid amount by allocating at least a portion of said bid amount based ona closing rate determined by said feedback.
 10. The system of claim 8,wherein said publish module is further configured to: receive a query,identify search results based on the query, and publish the searchresults over the data communication network, the search results beingincluded in the content.
 11. The system of claim 8, wherein said bid isfor the placement of the advertisement in the content for saidpre-determined period of time, said feedback being associated with oneor more sessions initiated with the advertiser device during thepre-determined period of time.
 12. A computer program product forallocating fees corresponding to electronic marketing campaigns, thecomputer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readablemedium having instructions thereon, the instructions comprising: codeprogrammed to receive a bid from an advertiser associated with anadvertiser device, said bid being for placement of an advertisement fora pre-determined period of time; code programmed to receive a requestand publish content for access over a data communication network inresponse to the request such that the content is accessible to one ormore access devices, the content including the advertisement; codeprogrammed to detect at least one selection of the advertisement, codeprogrammed to initiate, over the data communication network, at leastone session between the one or more access devices and the advertiserdevice in response to the at least one selection, code programmed togenerate and transmit at least one unique session identifier to theadvertiser device, and code programmed to receive voluntary feedbackfrom the advertiser device; and code programmed to allocate at least aportion of said bid based on said received voluntary feedback using saidunique session identifier; wherein said unique session identifieridentifies a publishing source of said advertisement to said computerprogram product while masking an identity of said publishing source tosaid advertiser; wherein an amount of said bid is independent of saidvoluntary feedback.
 13. The computer program product of claim 12,wherein said voluntary feedback includes positive or negative feedbackindicative of one or more occurrences of a predefined event during theat least one session.
 14. The computer program product of claim 13,wherein said predefined event includes at least one of a sale, acompletion of a registration, a download, a completion of anapplication, a receipt of a referral, a receipt of a subscription, and aplacement of an order.
 15. A computer-implemented method for allocatingfees corresponding to electronic marketing campaigns, comprising:receiving, by a publisher server, a revenue bid from an advertiser, thebid being an agreed amount of total money paid for placement of anadvertisement in content being published by said publisher server for aspecified amount of time; publishing content from said publisher serverto at least one access device, the content including the advertisement;detecting, by said at least one access device, a selection of theadvertisement; initiating, by said server, a session between said atleast one access device and an advertiser device associated with theadvertisement in response to said detection; receiving voluntaryfeedback, at said publisher server, from the advertiser device; andallocating, by said publisher server, said bid based on the voluntaryfeedback; assigning a session identifier to said session, wherein saidsession identifier identifies a publishing source of said advertisement;associating the voluntary feedback with the session identifier; andmasking the identity of said publishing source provided by said sessionidentifier from the advertiser until after the feedback is received;determining said revenue bid independently of the voluntary feedback.16. The method of claim 15, wherein said receiving step includesreceiving positive feedback when a predefined event occurred during thesession, and receiving negative feedback when the predefined event didnot occur during the session.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein saidreceiving step includes receiving an indication of an amount of valueprovided to said advertiser associated with the advertiser device duringthe session.
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein said allocating stepincludes allocating the revenue bid among a publisher of the content andat least one affiliate of the publisher based on the feedback.
 19. Themethod of claim 15, further comprising: receiving a query, andidentifying search results based on the query, the search resultsincluding the advertisement, wherein said publishing step is performedin response to the query, the content including the search results. 20.A publishing system including at least one affiliate, said publishingsystem being configured to communicate with an access device and anadvertiser device over a data communication network, the systemcomprising: a processor; memory in electronic communication with theprocessor; a bid module stored in said memory configured to receive abid amount from an advertiser, said bid amount being for placement of anadvertisement for a pre-determined period of time; a publish modulestored in said memory configured to publish content over a datacommunication network, the content including the advertisement; asession module stored in said memory configured to: detect a selectionof the advertisement, initiate a session between the access device andthe advertiser device in response to the selection, the advertiserdevice being associated with the advertisement, and receive voluntaryfeedback from the advertiser; and an allocation module stored in saidmemory configured to allocate said bid amount based on said voluntaryfeedback; wherein a bid amount paid by the advertiser to said publishingsystem is independent of said voluntary advertiser feedback; whereinsaid allocation module is further configured to allocate the bid amountpaid by the advertiser among a publisher associated with said publishingsystem and said at least one affiliate of the publisher based on saidvoluntary feedback; wherein said session module is further configured togenerate and transmit a unique session identifier to the advertiserdevice and to associate said feedback to said unique session identifier;wherein said unique session identifier identifies a publishing source ofsaid advertisement and an identity of said publishing source is maskedfrom said advertiser until said voluntary feedback is received from saidadvertiser; and wherein said publish module is further configured toreceive a query, identify search results based on the query, and publishthe search results over the data communication network, the searchresults being included in the content.